The first Friday of October fell on the 2nd. That evening the Kayenta Art Village stayed open from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., admission was free, and a documentary called Being Adolf Gasser screened at 7:30 as part of DOCUTAH's monthly slot. The Rusted Cactus opened its doors at 4:00 that same afternoon. The rest of the month follows the same clock. Art in Kayenta, the free three-day festival, is the one event on the calendar that ends before dinner.
That pattern matters for anyone planning around the village this month. Most of October in Kayenta happens after four in the afternoon, and the neighbor down the road at Tuacahn keeps nearly the same hours.
The Festival Ends at Five, and the Kitchen Is Open Friday and Saturday
Art in Kayenta runs October 9 through 11, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day, at the Art Village on Coyote Gulch Court. The Kayenta Arts Foundation lists more than 50 juried regional and national artists, live music, a beer and wine garden and food trucks. The festival also runs a silent auction, and the proceeds go to the Center for the Arts at Kayenta. Executive director Miranda Wright told PBS's Contact that the festival has been going for over 25 years and is one of the center's most popular events.
The booths close at 5:00. The Rusted Cactus is listed open from 4:00 Monday through Saturday. For the last hour of the Friday and Saturday festival days, artists are still standing at their tents while the village's evening restaurant is already serving. A September dining piece on the two restaurants at 815 Coyote Gulch Court describes the Rusted Cactus menu as seasonal dishes and shared plates, with burrata, sushi nachos, salmon, pork chop and filet mignon among the current selections. Xetava Gardens Cafe, the sister restaurant at the same address, serves lunch and dinner during the week and brunch on weekends. OpenTable lists Xetava open until 8:00 p.m. every day, with weekend brunch running 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The festival's Sunday is the day to check. The Rusted Cactus listing covers Monday through Saturday, so a Sunday plan on October 11 rests on Xetava. A call ahead settles it.
A Tuesday Lecture Ran on the Same Clock
Tuesday, October 6 was a weeknight, and the Center for the Arts at Kayenta scheduled its Voyager Lecture Series that evening. Dr. Brenden Rensink presented Seeking the Wildest West: Histories of Wilderness Experiences and Challenges to Their Future. A social hour started at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation began at 7:30.
The center sits at 881 Coyote Gulch Court and was built with the labor and funds of the Kayenta community. Its black box theater, the Lorraine Boccardo Theater, hosts over 50 events a year, adding up to roughly 120 individual performances across theater, music, dance, storytelling and humanities lectures. For the October 6 lecture, a 7:30 start left the whole afternoon and early evening open. The Rusted Cactus was open from 4:00, and Xetava closed at 8:00, after the talk began. Dinner before the social hour was the sequence the hours supported.
The Month, in Order
Here are the dated events from the Kayenta Arts Foundation's calendar and Tuacahn's schedule, listed by the hour each one starts.
| Date | Where | What | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct 2 | Kayenta Art Village | First Fridays at Kayenta, film Being Adolf Gasser | 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., film at 7:30 |
| Tue, Oct 6 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta | Voyager Lecture Series, Dr. Brenden Rensink | Social hour 6:30, talk 7:30 |
| Fri to Sun, Oct 9 to 11 | Kayenta Art Village | Art in Kayenta | 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily |
| Thu to Sat, Oct 22 to 24 | Tuacahn, Ivins | Final outdoor Broadway performances | 7:30 p.m. in October |
| Wed to Sat, Oct 28 to 31 | Tuacahn, Ivins | Odyssey Dance Theatre's Thriller | 7:30 p.m. |
| Fri and Sat, Nov 20 and 21 | Center for the Arts at Kayenta | Stephanie Garcia's dance company | Check kayentaarts.org |
Of the five rows with published hours, four start at 4:00 p.m. or later. The exception is the festival, which runs from 10:00 a.m.
The Amphitheater Next Door Moves Up to 7:30
Tuacahn Amphitheatre sits at 1100 Tuacahn Drive in Ivins, at the mouth of Padre Canyon, and its outdoor season is in its final weeks. Les Misérables runs through October 23, Grease through October 22, and Disney and Pixar's Finding Nemo through October 24. Les Misérables is the season's headline. Tuacahn had not staged it since 2008, and marketing director Stephanie Finck told St. George News that September and October are popular months and that seats are filling fast.
Showtimes shift with the calendar. Performances begin at 8:00 p.m. in September and 7:30 p.m. in October, which puts Tuacahn's October curtain at the same hour as the film on October 2 and the lecture on October 6. A marketplace listing showed Les Misérables at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 2, the same time as the First Friday film in the Art Village. The film and the production shared a 7:30 start, so they could not both fit into one evening. First Friday's 4:00 to 8:00 window left time to visit the galleries before the film.
The Broadway run ends October 22 through 24, and the amphitheater keeps going. Odyssey Dance Theatre's Thriller is on the fall concert bill for Halloween week, alongside Gin Blossoms, Chris Young, Rodney Atkins and a stop from Straight No Chaser. Tuacahn's marketing team says the fall concert season also includes tributes to the Beatles, the Bee Gees and Jimmy Buffett. Indoors, the Hafen Theatre opens Holiday Inn on November 20 and runs it through December 22.
Hours That Differ by Source
Village hours are the weak point in any October plan. The Art Village website and older listings show Xetava on different weekday and Monday hours than OpenTable and September's dining coverage do. Tripadvisor reviewers have mentioned finding some shops closed on the day they visited, which is one reason First Friday suits a gallery walk. On First Friday, village businesses extend their hours into the evening, as the Kayenta Art Village calendar notes. The galleries worth seeing include Gallery 873, Juniper Sky Fine Art Gallery, Datura Gallery and Mystic Canyon Light Gallery, and MakeSpace Kayenta offers classes.
The Kayenta Desert Arboretum is volunteer-run. Its path ends at the eleven-circuit Desert Rose Labyrinth and the sculpture garden beside it, a short walk from the village center. One older account lists access as dawn to dusk, so a quick look at the Art Village site before heading out is sensible.
A workable plan for the rest of October uses the daylight for the arboretum, the labyrinth and the galleries. It puts dinner at The Rusted Cactus at 4:00 or after, and saves the 7:30 slot for a canyon show; the film and lecture already took that slot earlier in the month. November 20 brings Holiday Inn to the Hafen Theatre the same evening Stephanie Garcia's dance company opens its two-night run at the Center for the Arts.
Brenda Buck and The Red Rock Collective keep a running eye on the Kayenta Art Village calendar and the Tuacahn season next door. If you would like a hand sorting out your October evenings, Let's Connect.
